Insights

Is it all just as simple as being in a calorie deficit and having enough protein?

In my fantasy world I would make a documentary about veganism. I think veganism is great, anything that promotes eating more plants is a good thing by me but I feel most people miss the point.

Do you remember the supersize me documentary where Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but Supersized meals for 30days and he became unwell, sluggish and piled on weight? Most people still think that was about McDonalds, not the fact he was massively overeating calories.

Too much is a pejorative term but if we took Morgan Spurlock and rammed the same amount of calories in him from Vegan Cafes and he ate way too much for 30days then I would imagine we would get much the same effect apart from him having excellent fibre content in his bowls.

Veganism much like the Paleo diet or the Mediterranean Diet all have similar things in common but most of the effects come from being in a calorie deficit and eating adequate protein,

However you mask that in the form of ‘diet’ doesn’t seem to matter.

We live in an age where finding out how many calories you are having and how much protein you made need is relatively simple due to apps like my fitness pal and things that can track outputs and progress like scales and fitbits.

We often get new members who come to us and say a weight loss group leader has told them they may be eating too little, this comment isn’t meant to be disparaging but if people are eating too little and not losing weight then we have cured world hunger.

People often want a more complicated answer as they may have been struggling with this for years, since the earliest days people have been over complicating things in order to sell people a solution.

Here’s a few tips if you are struggling to lose weight

Track your calories with myfitness pal or a simple pen and paper. Before we can do anything we must have awareness of what’s going on.

Measure your weight, take a waist and hip measurement and take photos. This massively increases your chances of success.

Make changes to your diet to ensure you are in a near constant deficit(MFP will easily tell you what to aim for) and you have enough protein during the day.

Do your measurements again and if nothing has changed then either lower calories or increase your activity. repeat this process until you are where you want to be.

If you are struggling with staying on track and need some help then give us or someone similar a call, you would pay several hundred pounds to go on holiday to feel better for a week so why wouldn’t you spend less to get help with something that could help you for the rest of your life.

If you have anything you want to ask or would like to pop along for a coffee with myself or Kate please comment below. Thank you for your time.